MINUTE DOSES.

An American lady, of middle age and of a sensitive temperament, was seized with dysentery. She had suffered several times with the same disorder in New York and had always been under homoeopathic treatment in cases of illness. Merc. corr. was now prescribed, in solution, a teaspoonful immediately after each movement of the bowels. At the end of five days the complaint was cured. The same remedy was now given twice a day, for two days longer; but no sooner had the bowels resumed their natural action, than a strong ptyalism set in and lasted several hours. No antidote was required, as the symptom had ceased before I was informed of its existence. It was now elicited that the New York physician used low attenuations of tinctures and triturations, and that various homoeopathic preparations of Mercury had before induced a much more marked and obstinate salivation.

It is remarkable that in this, as in the previous case, the ill effects of the remedy arose only when the curative action had ceased. Indeed had it been otherwise, the excessive flow of saliva and the concomitant symptoms, might fairly have been considered as symptoms of the disorder. Had the Mercurius been discontinued immediately on the cessation of the disorder, the inconvenience might have been averted.